A Zillion Things

Ann K Gryczan

​A zillion things to do, this and every day. How do you handle that as a student of consciousness?

Sometimes having a zillion things to do is great fun, but when it is not, when a zillion things is a problem, it is a problem of form.

In the world of form, time is an object: a container that holds only so much.

We can always use form as a doorway to enlightenment. The key is to bring awareness to the form instead of resisting it.

Here’s how:

Start with examining ‟reality,” in this case a big list with a zillion things on it. And they all must be done (except when they don’t, and that is a different issue).

Look at that list or recall it. What happens? What does it feel like? Pressure? Panic? Anger?

The ego loves to have something to push against or run away from.

The ego/mind loves an outside force, it loves to have an ‟other” to struggle with and rail against because that makes it a ‟self.” This is all in its mind. The ego isn’t really a self – it is really just a very complex network of ideas. Over time, as you unravel one after another of these ideas you realize it has no basis in reality.

Struggle takes a lot of time.

All the struggling, resisting, avoiding and complaining is what takes so much time. Interacting with form in this way is like setting up a straw man and then fighting with him. This is how we enter into the ego’s dream and end up losing our lives.

Surrender.

Try this instead: instead of fighting, surrender to the pressure or angst you feel about the list. Let it get you: be crushed by the weight of all you have to do. Be afraid – that you’re trapped or not enough or powerless. Be angry, even, at whatever has put you in this position. Notice all your reactions: physical, emotional and in the senses.

Now notice what is noticing these reactions. Imagine that you can step back a little and stand with what is noticing. What is it that is noticing? It is you. Step back from emotion and be this. Be you, noticing emotion rather than being emotion.  

Are you still okay?

Are you still okay? When we are resisting something, we are identifying with the object of our resistance. We become one with the struggle and lose ourselves. If instead, we let the outside force ‟get us,” it is like calling its bluff, and since it is always bluffing, we realize the ‟other” has no real effect and cannot harm us. A door opens back to ourselves allowing awareness of something deeper within - something still and present.

Enter into life.

Now look at the list and choose a task. Just one. Come to the task as if for the first time. Come to meet it like this:

• As if you have been given a sacred assignment.
• As if it is the last and best thing you will ever do in your life.
• As if it is the perfect expression of your entire life up to this moment (and it is).
  
• As if it is a gift you are placing on the altar of life in the only moment you will ever have.
• As if the whole of consciousness is awake and listening to you.

Try this with just one of the tasks you have today. And then another. Walk through the ego’s dream and back into life. Let this be the practice today. You will see – the list will change and time will change.

We can always use the content of our lives as a doorway to enlightenment – because that is what it is.